OCT Wetland Park
Something I realized while living in Shenzhen is that I’m very bad at exploring the places that I live. I’ve been in Shenzhen for 4 years and I haven’t really done or seen much here. I’ve gone to other places, like Guangzhou and Quanzhou, and seen things there, but not so much in Shenzhen. I did the same when I lived in Zamora. In 2 years there I probably saw as much as I did in a weekend trip or two to Madrid. It’s something I’ve sort of half-heartedly tried to fix. One of my first tries was to finally go to OCT Wetland Park.
When I first moved to Shenzhen I used to spend a couple hours on the weekend bumming around coffee shops in OCT Loft, a hip artsy area not far from window of the world. Exploring the area eventually brought me a little south to Shenzhen Bay. It’s a shopping area. There a cool DJI store there. But on the way one time I saw the entrance to OCT Wetland Park. I wanted to go. But I never did. Fast forward a couple of years and Chinese New Year Vacation was almost over and I found myself down at Shenzhen Bay again. I decided to wander over to the entrance to wetlands and try to decipher the sign. And then I decided to go. I went home, registered, and a couple days later went back to see the park.
QR code for WeChat registration
The park is definitely worth an afternoon of your time if you’re in Shenzhen and the first thing you need to do is sign up. The park is open to individuals on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and groups are allowed on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. You need to sign up before hand because they have a limit on how many people can enter. And you…might have to pay. I don’t remember. I promise I’m trying to get better at paying attention to what things costs even if it doesn’t seem like it. I’ll update the post when I find out. You can sign up through their website here or you can scan the QR code in WeChat which takes you to a much better formatted version of the site. Once you’ve signed up you just need to show the employee at the entrance your ticket and in you go. The closest subway station if you’re planning a trip there is Shenzhen Bay Park (深圳湾公园) on Line 9. The exit is at the south of the park, then you need to walk through and cross the road to get to the wetlands.
If my Chinese didn’t fail me the walk is around 2.5 kilometers out and then 2.5 more back. There were bikes you could rent plus there was a trolley that went the length a couple of times a day. Along the main path you can find a few old sentry towers that used to guard the bay and a couple of observation towers that you can go in for a nice look out over the wetlands. My favorite parts were the two boardwalks that go out over the water a little. They let you get a little closer than the paths otherwise let you and give you a great view.
At the very end theres a building that serves as a classroom or exhibition of some sort. It’s not always open although I don’t know if the building has hours or if whatever the building is doing has hours. It was closed when I was there and I didn’t want to hang around for hours to see what was up, so if you’ve been and know what they do in the building please drop a comment down below. The park is mostly very quiet and peaceful, but near the end it skirts right up next to Window of the World, which is a popular theme park. That area is a little less quiet because you’ve got the noise of the people in the park, but it’s still a good deal quieter than being out in a shopping area or something.
It took me a couple of years but I finally made my way to OCT Wetland Park. It’s a great way to spend a day if you find yourself in Shenzhen and hopefully it’s just the beginning of many trips to some of the more interesting places in the city. And keep you eyes open later this month to see another one of my early Shenzhen stops.
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